♪ (train horn) vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern. one line, infinite possibilities. sentencing gets under way, let's get right to carol costello, who is following the sentencing. >> thank you, soledad. the convicted child rapist says he's the real victim. >> they can take away my life. they can make me out as aa monster. they can treat me as a monster, but they can't take away my heart. in my heart, i know i did not do

these alleged, disgusting acts. >> that's not the most shocking claim in this stunning jailhouse recording. skydive of historic proportions. one man hopes to break the sound barrier in a jump from the edge the space. a new poll shows mitt romney out in front. the president's poor debate performance apparently giving the challenger a boost. but for how long? companies are now using the election to sell their products. "newsroom" starts now. good morning to you. thank you so much for joining us. i'm carol costello. one of the most reviled men in the country faces sentencing. the hearing is scheduled to start right now for convicted child rapist jerry sandusky, former football coach at penn state faces life in prison for 45 counts of child sex abuse. a ajury found he sexually abused ten boys over a 15-year period.

some of those victims and sandusky himself are expected to address the judge during this morning's aproceedings. the most stunning development may have come hours ago, releasing an audio recording from jail, saying he is the victim. >> they can take away my life. they can make me out as a monster. they can treat me as a monster but they can't take away my heart. in my heart i know i did not do these alleged, disgust iing act as. my wife has been my only sex partner and that was after marriage. our love continues. a young man who is dramatic, veteran accuser and always sought attention astarted everything. he was joined by a well-orchestrated effort of the media, investigators, the system, penn state, psychologists, civil attorneys and other accusers. they won. i've wondered what they really won. >> we are covering all the angles. susan candiotti is outside the courthouse where the hearing is

getting under way and attorney paul calan will have more on sandusky's audiotapes. apparently he had a bulletproof vest underneath his prison clothes when he arrived at the courthouse. what's going to happen inside that courtroom? >> reporter: first of all, you're going to be hearing from a lot of the victims and jerry sandusky himself. and those attorneys representing the victims in this case are saying aaftsay ing after hearing that audiotape that ajerry sandusky is either delusional a, as they put it, or truly believes he is the victim of some sort of grand conspiracy, despite a verdict from a jury that left no doubt that ajerry sandusky did it. >> i don't know what the strategy is, other than an animal who is about to be placed

in a cage and fighting out, lashing out. jerry sandusky is in denial that he committed any crimes, typical for a aserial pedophile, especially somebody as notorious as jerry sandusky. >> here is the rundown, acarcar. first of all, the judge is expected to declare him a violent sexual offender and then jerry sandusky is expected to address the court, probably take five to ten minutes. after that, letters will be entered into the record, including one from his wife, dottie and some of his adult childr children. after that, the victims will have a chance to either speak directly to jerry sandusky, by taking the stand and reading their own statement as or their statement as will be read into the record by prosecutors. not all of the victims will be here. some of them will be. and then, finally, the

sentencing. jerry sandusky faces up to 400 years. it's unlikely those would run back to back to back but rather concurrently. this whole procedure will take around a couple of hours. by the time it is over with. then we're very likely to hear from the people who participated afterwards. carol? >> susan candiotti, reporting live to us this morning. let's listen to more of those audiotapes from jerry sandusky. here he says his wife of 45 years remains by his side. >> we must fight unfairness a, inconsistency and dishonesty. people need to be portrayed for who they really are. we have not been complainers. when we couldn't have kids, we adopted. when we didn't have time to prepare for a atrial we still gave it our best. we will fight for another chance. we have given many second chances and now we'll ask for another one. it will take amore than our efforts. justice will have be more than

just a word, fairness be more than just a dream. it will take others somebody aapolit aapolitical to take the record forward. i ask for the strength to handle everything and the willingness to surrender only to god regardless of the outcome. >> criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor, cnn legal contributor. hello, ba paul. >> good morning, carol. surely the judge has heard this, do you think? >> oh, yes. the drama last night when networks were trying to figure out if this was for real or a prank. people were shocked that he would submit this to a college radio station. a lot of us were worried that this might be aa college prank but it is for real. >> how will it factor into his

decision? >> he will look at a 45-count indictment and conviction. he will look at the fact that there are ten boys who were sexually abused over a 15-year period and also sandusky's background a. when this tape comes up, the context will be -- lot of times a judge will look at the defendant and say does he feel sorry for the crime he committed? has ahe committed himself to rehabilitating himself? number one he blames the judge because the trial came too fast and blames a huge conspiracy which consists of lawyers, prosecutors, psychologists to convict him of this crime. finally, and most startingly, he blames the victims, the boys who brought the charges, who are now adults and says they are part of a grand conspiracy to bring him in. all of the things he says will hurt him with a sentencing judge.

which is why i was frankly stunned that he did this. he could have given an interview post sentence iing, of course, m jail. he knows he's going to jail. it wouldn't have affected his sentencing. to do it the night before a judge is going to hand down a sentence it defies belief he would do this, but he did. >> paul call aan, thanks for your insight this morning. just a reminder, we're covering this from all angles with crews inside the courtroom wait aing on the judge's decision. we'll have the latest reaction and return to the scene if anything develops. you're heading out the door, you can always take us with you. what a difference a debate makes. mitt romney has edged ahead of president obama 49% to 45%. this bounce comes after the president's lackluster debate performance last week. but it is still within the is

your survey sampling error. what's a president's campaign to do? answer, launch an ominous new ad a, featuring an aimposing six-foot tall figure, covered in yellow feathers, living in a nest. >> bernie madoff, ken lay, criminals, gluttons of greed. and the evil genius who towered over them? one man has the guts to speak ahis name. >> big bird. >> big bird. big bird. >> it's me, big bird. >> mitt romney knows it's not wall street you have to worry about. it's sesame street. >> i'm going to stop the subsidy to pbs. >> mitt romney taking on our enemies, no matter where they nest. >> as you well know in last week's debate mitt romney said he would cut funding to pbs, which, of course, airs sesame street starring big bird.

romney gave a major foreign policy speech to reboot the perception his campaign is weak on global affair as. romney cited recent protests and violence in arab countries as examples of a aworsening security situation he blamed on president obama's policies. >> the blame for the murder of our people in libya and the attacks on our embassies in so many countries lies soly with those who carried them out. no one else. but it is our responsibility and the responsibility of the president to use america aa's greatest power. >> call aiing it, quote, differe without distinction and did not stray from the tactics used now by the the obama administration. imagine being 23 miles above

the ground and then jumping. that's exactly what one extreme skydiver plans to do today at 120,000 feet, 82 1/2 empire state buildings stacked on top of one another. problem now is the weather a. strong winds are delaying the event. you're looking at a live picture from the launch site in new mexico. if everything goes to plan, baumgartner will begin the first person to break the sound bear aier witho a -- barrier without the aid of a vehicle. back in april i got a chance to ask him about that special suit he will wear for this moment. >> if you want to go up to an altitude of 120,000 feet you need to have a pressurized suit. reason why, if you cross the line, about 60,000 feet high, water in your blood starts

boiling and the pressure suit keeps the pressure with you and it's not going to happen to you. but also at the same time it's very limiting. you have a lack of movement. it's hard to exit the capsule in the suit. that will require a lot of practicing. that's what i did in the past. >> we hope it worked. joining us live from roswell, new mexico, with an update on the launch and final preparations. jetblue and 7-eleven are involved in a new publications battle and using the election to win the war for you. a hybrid? most are just no fun to drive. now, here's one that will make you feel alive. meet the five-passenger ford c-max hybrid. c-max says ha. c-max says wheeee. which is what you get, don't you see?

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checking our top stories, former penn state assistant coach, jerry sandusky, is in court this hour for the sentencing phase of his trial. he faces life in prison for sexually abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period. speaking out on a jailhouse recording, sandusky says he is

the real victim and did nothing wrong. crews at the courthouse. we'll bring you this sentence as it happens. justice may be getting closer for a grieving widow who says her husband was killed on a lake that straddles the u.s./mexico border. the arrest of the 2-year-old case a complete out-of-the blue shock. investigators say this man, suspected mexican drug cartel leader, is linked to the killing on falcon lake. the victim's body has never been found n. money news, sharing the $1.2 million peace prize in physics, cited for ground breaking work on manipulating individual particles, lowering the prize money by 20%, citing turbulence in the money markets. beatles will get a chance to see another side of john lennon, personal letters of him scolding paul mccartney and even a fan who criticized yoko ono.

granted hunter davies permission to publish the john lennon letters. the political blog "politico" is calling it the romney rebellion. his son, tag, and his wife, ann, are on a mission to expose the real mitt. romney's oldest son, quote, has been making sure that his father's environment is such that he's relaxed when he goes up to do things and making sure that he's not over programmed and is protected from the cacophony of advice. end quote. that was abundantly clear before the dough bait, you can see him playing jenga with his sons and grandkids and he does seem more at ease before campaign events. >> people wonder why it is i'm so confident we're going to win. i'm confident because i see you here on a day like this. this is unbelievable. thank you so much. >> so let's talk about that. maria cardona and ana navaro.

>> good morning. >> good morning, carol. >> demanding let mitt be mitt. are we see iing the real mitt a opposed to the man obama has called an actor? >> well, that's the big question, carol. i think that that is essential to, i think, what will be the democrat democratic message. we've seen so many mitts during his political lifetime that who knows which is the real mitt. look, he did appear more moderate, more human even, more likable during the debate. but it still stands that his policies have not changed. he stills wants to defund planned parenthood, even wants to get rid of big bird and get rid of obamacare, talking about how he would keep covering people with pre-existing conditions but doesn't tell us how to pay for t as much as he wants to deny it, he does have a $5 trillion tax cut for millionaires that will cost middle class families a bigger tax hike.

>> but still -- >> but that, i think, is the challenge for him. >> still, ana, conservatives always suspected romney was moderate. despite what maria just said he is showing a moderate tone at least. are republicans willing to embrace what they call a rino -- republican in name only? >> i thenk he is far from being a rino. he he is adopting a more moderate tone. i am elated by it, carol. it happens on both sides of the aisle. we're seeing a multi-dimensional mitt romney. we had seen the businessman, the fix-up artist. we had not seen the guy, the father, the human, the friend. we're seeing a will the more of that. it's helping. he had to do it. he had a huge gap. my question is, what took you so long? they're a great influence on him.

we've known, we've heard that ann range of motiomney is calle stabilizer, very close family, close couple. the more of this mitt we see the better. conservatives will be fine with it and are fine with it. at his stump events you're seeing thousands and thousands and thousands of people. that's the base that's showing up. look, if we win, if we can win, we don't care if it's the moderate or conservative, which one it is. we want mitt romney. we don't want president obama reelected. >> wait. i thought things were shifting, at least some conservative analysts were saying it's shifting, like tess no longer republican voters just want to vote against obama, now they're really starting to like mitt romney. maria, care to address? >> yeah. clearly, that is because of the shift. i agree with ana. it is a very smart thing to do. question is, why didn't he do it

sooner? the bigger question is, will he be able to keep up that moderate tone and rhetoric that doesn't really match up with the policies? and that's going to be the challenge for the democrats for vice presidential biden going into this vice presidential debate, for the surrogates to continue to point out that there is aa big casm between what he is saying and what he is actually proposing. he still embraces the paul ryan budget. let's keep that in mind. he still embraces cutting taxes for millionaires and billionaires. what will it do for middle class families? that is the big challenge. the focus for democrats is that it is still president obama, the one who wakes up every day, fighting for middle class family s. let's not forget the auto bailout, he wanted them to go bankrupt. >> we have to get ana in here. >> how many more talking points can you get into one segment? >> she was pretty good. she was like a politician. >> yeah. well, i will tell you the big

difference right now is that you can tell mitt romney is having fun. that's what you saw at the debate. you saw a mitt romney who was enjoying being there and brought his a game and you saw president obama who looked pained, looked like he would rather be having a root canal than being at that debate. and, you know, carol, the thing is, we are now -- before, we could say to a candidate, tell us what you think. today, we are also part of the oprah winfrey, dr. phil generation. we also want to know what they feel, who they are. we want to like them. you know, so i think it is very important that mitt romney is showing more of his personal side. we do know a lot about president obama. that's one of his advantages. you know, we know all about his daughters, his dog, his grandma, his mom, his wife. and i think it's a very good thing that mitt romney is also showing us the real mitt romney. >> except for the dog part. i know that was a low blow.

i couldn't help it. ana n aavaro, maria cardona, thanks. >> talk back question for the day. it's a different one. do you believe in life after death? and why? facebook.com/carolcnn.

now is your chance to talk back on the story of the day. do you believe in life after death? and why? there is a fascinating article in the latest edition of "newsweek" on life after death. most of us want to believe there's a deeper meaning to life and something out there for us after we die. the latest theory comes from dr. eban alexander, neurosurgeon who called himself a christian in name only until he contracted meningitis and had his own near-death experience. >> after seven days of virtual brain death, alexander emerged from the coma. miraculously within a month he was back to normal, but something happened to him while he was aaway. >> i had no body awareness. i had no arms, legs or anything,

but i was aware that i was a spec on a butterfly wing. absolutely beautiful butterfly. i was there with that beautiful, warm awareness of the divine, which was cloerly wh ll lly cll we would call god outside this universe. i remember the whole multi-verse being out in front of me. it was very clear that love was a huge part of the constituent of this whole multi-verse. >> sounds wonderful. it comes at a time when many americans are becoming less religious. in a new pew research study, 20% of americans said they had no religious affiliation compared to 15% five years ago. the article struck a cord, which says to us, despite what the polls say, most people are locking for answers about the afterlife. so, the talk back question for you, do you believe in life in after death? and why?

facebook.com/carolcnn. i'll be so interested to read your responses later on in the program. one man's crazy adventure, jump from the edge of space. one thing has placed his attempt on hold.

30 minutes past the hour. good morning to you. stories we're watching right now in the "newsroom," many investors are waiting on third quarter earnings to come in after the opening bell on wall street. executives and guests of berry plastics. jerry sandusky at a hearing for sentencing. he could get life. some of the victims are expected to address the judge. he was found guilty of 45 criminal counts of child sex bous. we'll bring you the sentence when it happens.

13,000 people may have received steroid injections contaminated with a rare if you thinkal meningitis, according to the cdc. at least eight people have died. more than 100 people in nine states are now infected. on hold right now, weather is delaying a man's plans to jump from 120,000 feet from the edge of space. felix baumgartner wants to become the first skydiver to break the sound barrier. this is red bull animation, showing you his journey. once he jumps from his capsule on the edge of space, he will quickly reach 700 miles per h r hour. to put this all into perspective, baumgartner will be traveling faster than a boeing 747 airliner almost 23 miles above the earth. wow! in case you're wondering, a traditional skydiver only goes about 120 miles an hour.

brian todd joins me now from roswell, new mexico, the site of the jump. oh, the weather! >> reporter: the weather is delaying things for now. what we just found out from meteorologists here, they're going to stick it out for another couple of hours. this still has a chance to go today. the weather could be improving in the next couple of hours. they say they can launch as late as 11:00 or noon local time, 1:00 or 2:00 pm eastern time. they're going to wait another couple of hours to make the call. they could see more optimal conditions now that the sun has come up and winds may die down. the key height they're looking at is winds 700 to 800 feet above the earth were a little bit too high earlier today. they think now that the sun has come up that those winds may come down. they're going to stick it out for another couple of hours and may still be able to launch today. a couple of months ago i talked to the daredevil, felix baumgartner and asked him a fairly heavy question about all

of this. >> always been part of my life, as a base jumper, you always face death on every base jump. therefore, it is important that you do your homework, because you need confidence. you have to have confidence in your team, your skills and yourself. and you always hope you're not going to die. it might happen but i'm going to put everything out there to make sure it's not going to happen. >> he has a large team of scientists and other experts at work. they're all seam lle -- seaasse here. watching the weather carefully here. they had a good sense of this mission, that they could carry it off and return felix baumgartner to earth safely. we're all at the mercy of the weather in a lot of thy these things. that's the holding pattern right now, carol. >> i'm curious about so many things, brian. once he jumps, how long would the jump last before his p

aarachute opens? >> reporter: only about five minutes before the parachute opens. the entire thing will only take 15 minutes once he steps off that capsule. compare that to the time he has to get up there, two to three hours, pretty excruciating for most of us. once he jumps off that capsule, 15 minutes total, five minutes in freefall. aat about 5,000 feet above the surface of the earth, his p aarachute will open. he will cruise down and hopefully that's the way it goes. it's the blink of aan eye when you think five years in preparation for this, it got green lighted seven years ago, takes three hours to get up there and over almost before you know it. >> so yes or no, would you do it? >> reporter: would i do it? wow! maybe if i had as much behind me as felix does, as far as just the technology and equipment and everything, sure. i would like to say i would do it. sure. wouldn't all of us like to say, sure, i would do it.

>> i would do it in a minute. >> three-hour ride up there, though, i might have second thoughts. >> probably right about that. brian todd, thank you so much. in the world of politics, pizza hut is offering free pizza for life. all you have to do to win is ask the candidates one simple question. ♪ [ male announcer ] start with nothing, build a ground-breaking car. good. now build a time machine. go here, find someone who can build a futuristic dash board display. bring future guy back. watch him build a tft display like nothing you've ever seen. get him to explain exactly what that is. the thin film transistor display... [ male announcer ] mmm, maybe not. just show it. customize the dash, give it park assist. the fuel efficiency flower thing. send future guy home, his work here is done. destroy time machine. win some awards, send in brady. that's how you do it. easy. wit's hard to see opportunityy. in today's challenging environment. unless you have the right perspective. bny mellon wealth management has the vision

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it is sentencing day for former penn state coach and pedophile jerry sandusky, facing up to life in prison for sexually abusing all those boys. sandusky and some of his victims are expected to address the judge. former defensive cord narrate has been speaking out from jail, thou though. he says he's the real victim, as he proclaimed his innocence in an interview that aired on penn state's student-run radio station. >> they can take away my life. they can make me out as a

monster. they can treat mes a monster, but they can't take away my heart. in my heart, i know i did not do these alleged, disgusting acts. >> sandusky's sentencing phase comes three months after his conviction on 45 counts of child sex abuse. my next guest knows what it's like to spend time behind bars. larry levine, now the director and founder of wall street prison consult ants. we welcome. >> good morning. glad to be with you. >> we were wondering what life will be like for jerry sandusky behind bars. can you give us a sense? >> let me start with something about his sentencing. generally the court is looking for remorse for your crimes. for him to come out and call himself the victim is a special kind of stupid. that's really going to work against him. and when he reaches custody, there's two kinds of people that are really hated inside. that's people that are snitches and informants and people that

molest children and child pornography. he's not going to have a lot of friends on the inside. i've seen things that his lawyer has put out, saying that they bloev believe he will go to minimum custody. that's not true at awe all. just the level of the sentence he is going to get, he will be a flight risk, behind a fence somewhere, perhaps low custody, medium custody. not to mention the severity of his crime. he is a threat to the community. so he will hard time it. and prison is like a social experience. you've made friends while your on the inside, spend a lot of time with people. but these child molesters, kiddie porn people, they're outcasts. nobody wants anything to do with them. i read some reports saying the state of pennsylvania has indicated they won't give him any kind of special treatment. he is kind of a marked man on the inside.

he has notareity. maybe a regular -- there's no such thing as a regular child molester, but people that have been convicted of child molestation, they go inside and loi about their crimes. this guy doesn't have a chance. i bloelieve he will have to be isolation. >> isn't he in isolation right now? they're protecting him right now. >> he is in a detention center, county jail setting for people going through the sentencing, trial process. once you get inside a prison and have been sentenced, you develop a routine where you go to work and you have leisure time and aathletic time and you have to go to the doining hal idining h. you have more structure. he is sitting in a cell. they can't let him go into whatever general population in this detention center. i don't see him in general population. >> what kind of life -- will he

have amenities, be able to watch tv? >> yeah. he can buy -- pennsylvania state prison prisons, i believe they allow you to buy a 13-inch tv, you get 15 channels. i believe he's not really solitary confinement, but some type of protective custody holding unit. he's not going to have the regular type of social experience people on the inside have, interact iing with hundre of other inmates. they're going to have to protect him. let's look at it like this. he will be in an institution of high security where people are serving long sentences, life sentences and such. these people have nothing to lose. so for someone to kill him, someone to take him out, they'll become a hero. he is not a popular guy to begin with. so he'll have to watch had his back till the day he dies. he's never getting out. he's leaving in a box. >> larry levine, thanks so much for being with us today. wh we appreciate it.

>> certainly. >> wow, that was grim. cnn has crews inside the courtroom, waiting for the sentence and outside, of course, waiting to get reaction. keep it here throughout the day. we'll bring you the sentence when it happens. [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. i just served my mother-in-law your chicken noodle soup but she loved it so much... i told her it was homemade. everyone tells a little white lie now and then. but now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] she's right behind me isn't she? [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

[ clears his throat ] i"i'm not in favor of a she'sa$5 trillion tax cut.t she? that's not my plan." mitchell: "the nonpartisan tax policy center concluded that mitt romney's tax plan would cost $4.8 trillion over 10 years." vo: why won't romney level with us about his tax plan, which gives the wealthy huge new tax breaks? because according to experts, he'd have to raise taxes on the middle class - or increase the deficit to pay for it. if we can't trust him here... how could we ever trust him here?

45 minutes past the hour. one way to grab the undivide attention of undecided voters is to pull a stunt. a public relations stunt more about promoting and selling products than promoting a specific candidate. alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange. pizza hut is involved, free pizza for life. >> isn't that what you've always wanted, a free pizza party for the rest of your life? >> yes! >> you could also choose -- this is an even better option. the $15,000 in cash. if you don't want the pizza. if you want to win one of these things, you have to go rogue. pizza hut wants you to ask mitt

romney or president obama, do you like sausage or pepperoni on your peeizza? at the next presidential debate october 16th, a townhall style debate. this could be kind of tough. the questions are typically prescreened. these kind of gimmicks, this kind of schtick is typical for compa companies, promotions tied to big events, such as the super bowl, to get in on the conversation and make money off of it. 7-eleven is running a seven election. pick a candidate by buying a blue donkey cup for obama or red elephant cup for romney when you go in to buy your morning coffee. 7-eleven has done this in the past election. this promotion lined up perfectly with the results of the 2004 and 2008 elections? yes, 7-eleven does keep a running tab on how many cups each color is selling. one more to tell you about, my personal favorite -- jetblue is offering its election protection. basically go online, vote for a

candidate. if your guy doesn't win, you could win a ticket out of the country. better yet, it's a round trip so you can come back, too. go on. vote for who is going to lose. i'm going to go on, vote for who is going to lose and i'm going to go to barbados. you want to come? >> usually it's canada, but i like barbados much, much better. >> turs and caicos. go with me. with we'll have a girl's trip together. >> we'll have a great time. little marga -- yeah. thank you, alison, for putting that image in my mind. college quarterback loses the game and his house gets tp'd, toilet papered and egged. some football fans are going way over the line.

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the houston texans are still unbeaten after a monday night football game win over the new york jets. the texans fooled the jets' defense on the first score of the game when their line went right, quarterback matt schaub rolled left, and he hit daniels. houston never trailed beating new york 23-17. before the game tim tebow tweeted, quote, looking forward to giving god all the glory in tonight's 666th monday night football game. that's right, 666. tebow had five rushes for 19 yards, threw one pass, an incompletion that really should have been caught but i guess god had other plans for the jets. on to decidedly ungodly behavior but let's start with

the good. an offensive lineman's job is to protect his quarterback. in sunday's game against baltimore, chief's quarterback matt cassel went down with an injury and some chiefs fans, yes, cassell's own fans, cheered. winston teed off on them after the game. >> when you cheer somebody getting knocked out, i don't care who it is, and it just so happened to be matt cassel, it's sickening. it's 100% sickening. if he's not the best quarterback, he's not the best quarterback and that's okay, but he's a person, and he got knocked out in a game, and we got 70,000 people cheering. >> it's not the only recent case of fans behaving badly. university of georgia quarterback aaron murray had his home egged and rolled after saturday's loss. angry fantasy owners sent carolina panthers running back

deanglo williams profanity-laced tweets and you, of course, remember josh morgan who got death threats on twitter. let's talk about this with former nfl running back tiki barber. good morning. >> good morning, carol. how are you? >> what's going on with these fans? >> you know what's interesting is the world we live in is accessible to athletes. you can interact with them in ways you never could before and come fans take advantage of that. by and large the anonymity of the internet has provided an opportunity to be vial and evil and racist and anything else in between, and i don't know if that's necessarily a good thing for the sport. when it manifests itself on the field, as it did in kansas city with matt cassel going down with a concussion and his home team cheering, it starts to get disturbing. the veil of a mob mentality is something we've always been scared of as athletes because you another know what's going to happen when you get into a situation like that. >> of course. you know, remember back in the

day like maybe two years ago when someone was injured on the field, the whole stadium would become silent. people would start praying. players from opposing teams would pray this guy was all right. what happened to those kinds of fans? >> that's what it's supposed to be. you're supposed to cheer when he gets up and walks off the field. so there's not really a defined mechanism on how to handle these things. boxing, we cheer for a guy to get knocked out. not everybody is just trying to score points. you're seeing to the see other the guy knocked out. in football in particular, you done want to see guys get hurt. you don't want to see your stars on the field from a league perspective, from a team perspective because it takes fans out of the arena. but this is disturbing for how vicious it seemed from a home team. you're used to seeing it from

philadelphia fans or oakland fans for the opponent. >> hopefully fans will behave. tiki barber, thanks so much. talk back question, do you believe in life after death? and why? your responses next. it's the little things in life that make me smile. spending the day with my niece. i don't use super poligrip for hold because my dentures fit well. before those little pieces would get in between my dentures and my gum and it was uncomfortable. even well-fitting dentures let in food particles. super poligrip is zinc free.

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custom emails that drive business. it's just one of the ways constant contact can help you grow your small business. sign up for your free trial today at constantcontact.com/try. talk back question this morning, do you believe in life after death and why in this from david, absolutely. one can't possibly think that we and this rock we stand on is all there is. the good lord has given us enough information, all we have to do is listen. from matthew, people are becoming more spiritual and less religious why in my experience is a great thing. from jeremy, no, i verge don't believe. he was only dreaming. if his heart had stopped, so would his feelings and visions of life. from this la von, if some believe there is life without religion, it's not so much a stretch for those people to believe there may be an afterlife. from jay, i'm 99% sure when you

die, you 16r78 cease to exist. hoping god is there to prove me wrong when my time comes. keep the responses coming. facebook.com/carolcnn. the next hour of "newsroom" begins right now. happening now, jerry sandusky in court likely on his way to a lifetime in prison, but the convicted child rainist says he's the victim. hear it for yourself in a stunning sgral house recording. could you do this? jump from a helium balloon from the edge of space. one daredevil hoping to make that jump today 120,000 feet up. the race for the who us is pumping millions into our economy, but that might not be as important as who wins control of congress. and a truck drives right into a california liquor store and a worker is trapped in the rubble. we'll tell you how the story played out. "newsroom" starts now.

and good morning. thank you so much for joining us. i'm carol costello. right now one of the most reviled men in the country faces sentencing. a hearing now under way or convicted child rainist jerry sandusky. the former assistant football coach at penn state faces up to life in prison for 45 counts of child sex abuse. a jury counseled he sexually abused ten boys over a 15-year period. some of those victims and sandusky himself will address the judge during this morning's proceedings. but the most startling development may have come just hours ago. sandusky released an audio recording from jail saying he's the victim. >> they can take away my life, they can make me out as a monster, they can treat me as a monster, but they can't take away by heart. in my heart i know i did not do these alleged disgusting acts. my wife has been my only sex partner, and that was after marriage. our love continues.

a young man who is dramatic, a veteran accuser, and always sought attention started everything. he was joined by a well-york straighted effort of the media, investigators, the system, penn state, psychologists, civil attorneys, and other accusers. they won. i've wondered what they really won. >> we're covering all the angles. susan candiotti outside the courthouse and veteran lawyer, prosecutor, criminal defense attorney paul callen will have more on the audio tapes. let's begin with you, susan. bring us up to date. >> reporter: well, carol, we can only imagine how painful it must be for the victims of jerry sandusky to hear him speak in court, and i wonder whether they had an opportunity last night when that audio tape was released to hear what he has to say, to hear him blaming the media, investigators, even the victims themselves for what happened to him saying that it was their fault and not his.

and even saying at one point that maybe he could be a candle in the wind, in his words, by somehow helping other victims of abuse. now, that's hard to comprehend exactly what he meant by that, but i'll tell you something, defense attorneys are saying jerry sandusky had every right to make that tape because, after all, they said, he is facing the rest of his life dying behind bars. if he wants to say it, let him. well, that doesn't hold much water with at least one civil attorney representing one of the victims. take a listen. >> i don't know what the strategy is other than an animal who is about to be placed in a cage and fighting out and lashing out, and jerry sandusky is in denail that he committed any crimes, which is typical for a serial pedophile, especially somebody who is as notorious as jerry sandusky. >> reporter: you know, because of the tight restrictions in court right now, carol, we don't

know exactly what is happening at this hour because once you're in, you can't come out until the whole thing is over with, but here is the order in which things are supposed to be happening. jerry sandusky was supposed to speak first, and he was going to make a statement. then there was supposed to be letters read into the record, if not read into the record, put into the record by his wife and his adult children. and then perhaps the most dramatic moment of all, when victims have an opportunity, some of them, to face jerry sandusky directly, the man a jury found guilty of attacking them, of raping them, of assaulting them, and look him in the eye and say their piece, and we know from some of their lawyers that some of them intend to say how angry they are and to urge the judge to say this is the pain that i suffered, please take that into consideration when you sentence this man. and finally, that's when we'll learn what the sentence is, when the judge says how many years

jerry sandusky will spend. but we all know it will be the rest of his life in jail. >> susan candiotti reporting live for us this morning. now to more of the audio tapes from jerry sandusky. here he says his wife of 45 years remains loyal, by his said. >> we must fight unfairness, inconsistency, and dishonesty. people need to be portrayed for who they really are. we've not been complainers. when we couldn't have kids, we adopted. when we didn't have time to prepare for a trial, we still gave it our best. it will take more than our effort. justice will have to be more than just a word. fairness be more than just a dream. it will take others, somebody apolitical with the courage to listen, to think about the unfairness, to have the guts to stand up and take the road less traveled. i ask for the strength to handle everything and the willingness to surrender only to god,

regardless of the outcome. >> paul callen is a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor, a cnn contributor, he joins us now from new york. when you listen to those tapes in their entirety, jerry sandusky says that he didn't have time to set up an adequate defense. could this just be a maneuver to make a case for an appeal? >> well, this is all part, i think, of an orchestrated plan to do exactly that, and i think what he's trying to do is he's trying to fight this on two levels. one is this tape is meant to appeal to the public and try to create sympathy for him. now, i think it's going to backfire, but certainly in his own mind i think he's saying he was the victim of an unfair prosecution, of victims who were trying to make money. susan candiotti was talking about him being a candle in the wind. now, that one i don't get. candles in the wind get snuffed out and blown out, and he's going to get a taste of that, i'm sure, from the judge a little bit later this morning. so he's trying to get the public on his side so that the

appellate court will be more sympathetic to the arguments that are going to be made before them to reverse that conviction and send it back for a new trial. >> so you've been a prosecutor, you're also a defense attorney. when you started listening to these audio tapes, did you just shake your head and say, what is up with that? >> i got to tell you, you know, i was here at cnn last night when the story broke. it was kind of exciting, you know, that he can braing news stuff. they said you have to listen to this tape. i'm listening to and i'm thinking this must be a prank by college students to fool the networks and get us to air this stuff. we have to be very careful about this. it has to be a prank. he couldn't have done this. the day before sentencing. and, of course, the more i listened to it, boy, it's his voice, and he's dead serious, around it was jerry sandusky. i think it's a strategic mistake. i think it's going to backfire with the judge. i mean, he attacks the judge for forcing them to trial too quickly. he attacks the victims in the case by saying they're part of a

massive conspiracy against him, and he paints himself as a victim, even though he's been convicted of abusing ten boys over a 15-year period, 45 counts. it's not very persuasive, and i don't think it's a good strategy, but for whatever reason this is the world view of jerry sandusky at this point in time. >> well, we'll see what happens later on this morning. paul callen, thanks, as always. >> nice being with you. >> thank you, paul. before we break away from the sandusky sentencing, just a reminder, we're covering it from all angles. we have crews inside the courtroom awaiting the judge's decision. outside the courtroom we'll have the latest reaction for you, and, of course, we'll return live as soon as anything develops. all right. on to something fun and good. the waiting is the hardest part. weather now delaying a daredevil's plan to jump from 120,000 feet up. felix baumgartner wants to become the first skydiver to break the sound barrier. red bull is sponsoring the jump. now, once bum gartner jumps from

his capsule on the edge of space, he will quickly reach 700 miles an hour. now, to put this in perspective, he will be traveling faster than a boeing 727 airliner. that's how fast he's going to be falling. a traditional skydiver goes about 120 miles per hour. brian todd joins me from roswell, new mexico, the site of the jump. so it's definite now? there is a delay? >> reporter: there is a delay, carol, but they still are in a window where they think they could launch this thing. they think that the launch could come off probably no earlier than about 11:30 a.m. local time, 1:30 p.m. eastern time. it could go another -- they could delay it maybe a little bit beyond that, but probably not much because of the duration it would take and then the darkness factor setting in for later when he lands. so still in a holding pattern with the weather, but it could come off today. we're going to wait and see if the winds at about 700 or 800

feet die down as they thought it might. with the sun coming up, they think they might see more optimum conditions for launch. you mentioned interestingly that he's going to be going more than 690 miles an hour, closer maybe to 700, maybe even as high as 720 miles an hour. the only other person to even approach that speed outside a vehicle is the man whose record felix baumgartner is going to be trying to break, that is retired joe kitten injury. a few months ago i spoke to kitinger and asked him what it was like to go that fast. can you tell the average joe out there what it's like to go 600-plus miles an hour? with nothing but a suit on? >> there's nowhere you can tell how fast you're going because there's no visual cues. >> right. >> the only way you know you're going fast is you have an altimeter that's unwinding real fast and you know you're going down in a hurry, but the force on the body remains the same. >> reporter: and to clarify, joe

kitinger when he made that jump in 1960, he went about 614 miles an hour. felix baumgartner is supposeding to between 690 and maybe as fast as 710, 720 miles an hour and he will be breaking the speed of sound if and when he does that, carol. >> that's just insane. i get what he's talking about though. you don't have any visual cues. it's like flying in an airplane and you look out the window, you can't feel how fast you're going because of that. so if this try is canceled today, brian, when is the next attempt? >> reporter: well, the meteorologist don day told us if it does not go today, he said the conditions do not look as favorable tomorrow. so they are looking at thursday as a more probable go day for the mission if it's not launched today. >> brian todd, thanks so much. we'll get back to you, if the jump goes off. thank you so much. on to sports, baseball's wildcard winners are going on the road with a split of their

two playoff series. the jorioles evened the series. jim johnson came in and he earned a save for the birds. game three tomorrow night in the bronx. the cardinals and washington serieses is knotted at one. carlos beltran hit two of the four st. louis home runs. beltran has the highest postseason slugging percentage in baseball history. the nationals host game three of the series tomorrow afternoon. wall street's money men and women say forget the presidential race. watch for the battles in congress. capella university understands rough economic times have led to an increase in clinical depression. drug and alcohol abuse is up. and those dealing with grief don't have access to the professional help they need. when you see these issues, do you want to walk away or step up?

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no you're not. i know. you know ronny folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico sure are happy. how happy are they jimmy? happier than a witch in a broom factory. get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. it is 15 minneapolis past the hour. jerry sandusky in court today for sentencing. he could get life in prison. former penn assistant coach and some of his victims expected to address the judge. sandusky was found guilty of 45 criminal counts. of course, we'll bring you the sentence when it happens. justice may be getting closer for a grieving widow who says her husband was killed on a

lake that straddles the u.s./mexico border. she calls an arrest in the two-year-old case a shock. investigators say this man a linked to the killing on falcon lake. the victim's body has never been found. in money news, walmart and american express are teaming up. they're launching a new prepaid card as an alternative to checking accounts and debit cards. they're calling it blue bird. it will have no month, annual, or overdraft fees and no minimum balance. you can use it at the atm and make deposit was your start phones. in california where an incredible crash is caught on camera. a truck crashed into the liquor store trapping the owner underneath the rubble, and then the driver -- the driver sped off. police watched the surveillance video and in a few hours they caught up with that driver. he is now under arrest. a new poll shows romney

edging ahead of president obama after last week's debate, as both candidates head to the key battleground state of ohio today. president obama holds a rally in ohio state university in columbus this afternoon, and mitt romney will campaign in cuyahoga falls, ohio, tonight, that's ther cleveland. that new pew research poll shows romney ahead of obama 49% to 45%, but romney's advantage is within the survey's sampling error. and while most americans will be focused on the presidential election on november 6th, wall street will be looking more closely at the congressional races. alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange to explain. good morning. >> good morning, carol. the way wall street sees it, forget about the presidential election. economists say it's the congressional election that's more important. look what this cnn money survey found. it found that 60% of analysts say whoever wins control of congress is going to have a bigger impact on stocks. compare that to 40% who say the next president will have a bigger impact. and it's all because of the fiscal cliff. we've heard the warnings time

and time again. we could go into a recession if congress sits on its hands and does nothing, unemployment can go higher. one analyst calls the fiscal cliff a ticking time bomb. stocks are going to be under pressure until we get an idea of what congress is going to do. this is so important to the market because the fiscal cliff affects the taxes you pay, the taxes corporations play, it affects how much money is taken out of your paychecks. that impacts how much we spend, and it impacts, of course, whether or not companies are going to hire. at the moment polls of showing republicans could hold onto the house, but the senate, oh, the smat is a wildcard. it can go either way. that's why analysts say the senate is the most important race of all, even above who wins president. >> alison kosik reporting live from the new york stock exchange. talk back question for you today, do you believe in life after death? and why? facebook.com/carolc facebook.com/carolcnn. "homemade"

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now is your chance to talk back on one of the stories of the day. the question for new morning, do you believe in life after death?

and why? it's a fascinating article in the latest issue of "newsweek" about the possibility of life after death. it caught our attention because most of us want to believe there's deeper meaning to life and something out there for us after we die. the latest theory comes from dr. alexander, a neurosurgeon who called himself a christian in name only until he contracted meningitis and had his own near-death experience. >> after seven days of virtual brain death, alexander emerged from the coma. miraculously within a month, he was back to normal, but something happened to him while he was aware. >> i had no body awareness, no arms, legs, or anything, but i was aware i was a speck on a butterfly wing. absolutely beautiful butterfly. i was there with that beautiful, warm awareness of the divine, which was clearly what we would call god in this place outside

the universe. basically i recall the whole multiverse being out in front of me. it was very clear that love was a huge part of the constituent of that whole multiverse. >> it comes at a time when many americans are becoming less religious. in a pew research study nearly 20% of americans, one in five, said they had no religious affiliation compared to nearly 15% five years ago. still, the article struck a chord which says to us, despite what the polls say, most people are looking for answers about the afterlife. so the talk back question today, do you believe in life after death? and why? facebook.com/carolcnn. your responses later this hour. the obama campaign is out with a new political ad this morning, and it goes mitt romney, and it features a big, big character, really big. these are sandra's "homemade"

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this is cnn breaking news. >> all right. all morning long we've been telling you that jerry sandusky is in a courthouse awaiting his fate. well, his fate has come. let's head to the courthouse now with susan candiotti. what's the sentence? >> reporter: carol, jerry sandusky will die in jail. as expected, he got a very long sentence. the judge said not less than 30 years, not more than 60 years. well, jerry sandusky is 68 years old, so he will spend the rest of his life in jail. he got credit for time served, the judge said, 112 days, and he will spend the next ten days in local jail until they send him to prison. now, we do know that he spoke for about 13 minutes or so. he went on and on and said these words that included, quote, i did not do these disgusting

acts, and he repeated that sentence time and again. this as the victims also got to hear him and then make their own statements, and we know that they were going to say that they were angry, that they were angry and wanted the judge to really throw the book at him, and that's exactly what the judge did. now, jerry sandusky is now leaving the courthouse. he is wearing a bulletproof vest. he was in shackles. he's walking out, and then he will be taken to jail and then eventually to the prison where he will be serving out his sentence, and we'll be getting more color about what happened in court from jason carroll. >> i wanted to read and make it clear to our audience what exactly happened. jerry sandusky was sentenced to not less than 30 years, not more than 60 years. he got 112 days of credit, and the next ten days will be in a local jail before he's going on to prison. we saw live pictures of jerry

sandusky getting into that police car. i would assume he's back on his way to that local jail before he's transfeshed to a federal prison. is jason carroll out of the courtroom yet, susan? i think he's ready now. jason, are you there? >> reporter: he's ready to tell you. >> reporter: i am here, carol. just came out of the courthouse. want to give you sort of a sense of what happened as jerry sandusky stood up to speak. he became very emotional toward the end -- while he was addressing the court. let me read to you some of the quotes i was able to pick up. he said at the outset, he said, i feel the need to talk, not for arrogance, but from my heart. i'm filled with emotion and determination. i did not do these disgusting acts. he went on to speak about his past, he spoke about his wife saying i told dottie, this is the day we're in the fourth quarter. he said this is the time when you find out who your friends are in the fourth quarter, those who will stand by you. he said i'd like to believe they know me the most.

they continue to stand by me. he became very emotional at the conclusion while he was addressing the court. he had been criticized throughout the proceeding, even today he was criticized for smirking his way through things. he said that -- basically saying he was smiling through the pain, and he started tearing up, and he said this is what my family does. we smile when things get tough. some of the other emotional moments, as you can imagine, were some of the victims themselves, when they stood up and they addressed the court. for instance victim number six, he spoke to jerry, spoke to the court. he said that night you told me you were the tickle monster so you could touch my 11-year-old body. i realize now just how much you manipulated me. at that point jerry just looked stone faced. i looked at his family, they were looking down as the victims stood up. victim number five then addressed the court saying, the sentence will never erase what he did to me.

it will never make me whole. he must pay for his crimes, take into account the tears, the pain, the private anguish. victim number five did not look at jerry, who was seated just a few feet away from -- just a few feet away from him, but what i found interesting was victim number four, i remember when victim number four testified, he was one of the more feisty victims who took the stand, and he was feisty even today. he looked directly at jerry sandusky not once, carol, but several times while he gave his victim impact statement. he said, quote, i want you to know, i do not forgive you. i don't know if i ever can forgive you. lots of emotion in the courtroom today, carol. that's for sure. >> so jason carroll, and susan candiotti, stand by. i want to bring in paul callan our legal analyst. we had heard the judge might sentence jerry sandusky up to 400 years in prison. he comes back with a sentence not less than 30 years, not more than 60. is this because of jerry sandusky's age?

>> yes, i think that's an important factor. the judge is undoubtedly looking at the fact that even a 30-year sentence will probably mean that jerry sandusky will die in prison, and, you know, these sentences, these consecutive sentences which could have added up to over 400 years, while technically it might be a legal sentence, when an appellate court is looking at the case, it looks like a vindictive judge as opposed to a judge who is trying to be fair and reasonable in his approach to the case. so i think it sort of strengthens the hand of the judge in having the conviction upheld by doing this kind of a sentence as opposed to one of those off the books, huge numbers. >> i want to go back to jason carroll. i know jerry sandusky's wife was in the courtroom. she's remained loyal to him, by his side. what was her reaction? >> reporter: it was very interesting to see how she would respond to a lot of this, and emotionally she held it together and she wasn't the only one who was there. several of jerry sandusky's

children, grown children, were also in the courtroom. e.j., he was there. his kaur kara, she was there as well. some interesting points though about the sentencing itself because the judge made it very clear when he addressed the court, he said, look, the law allows me to sentence you to hundreds of years if i could, but he felt as though it was too esoteric. he wanted to make sure jerry was sentenced to something that wasn't so abstract using the judge's words, something that he could understand, and given that jerry is 68 years old, that's why he, in fact, ended up sentencing him to no less than 30 years which is effectively a life sentence. >> yeah. and paul callan, i guess the appeals process will now begin. >> yes, it will, and, you know, they've raised some interesting claims on appeal. they're saying that they were rushed into this trial. the trial did go very, very quickly. i mean, the last indictment was in december of 2011.

they were picking a jury in june. that's a real fast track on a complicated case, and, you know, they're also saying that the prosecutor made an improper reference to the fact that sandusky didn't tell his story properly, which meant his fifth amendment rights were violated, and they've got a few arguments to put on the board on appeal, whether an appellate court will go along is another decision. >> just to give viewers an idea of what you're seeing, that was jerry sandusky's wife, dottie, getting into that car. of course, her husband got into a police vehicle earlier as he left the courtroom. he's off probably to a local jail and then at some point he'll be transferred to federal prison. jason carroll, the victims in this case, i mean, i know one of the victims plans to write a book about this, but no other victim i can think of has shown his face. >> well victim number one is the one you're referring to who is

allegedly going to be writing this book. but we're hear being so many book deals. we've heard that jerry sandusky has been writing a lot in prison, has a lot of time on his hands. he's written me, in fact, two letters. and so we're hearing that perhaps he may write a book as well, some of the attorneys involved on one side or the other may be penning books as well. so these are just some of the things we're hearing. but one other point that struck me in court because a lot has been said, obviously the most recent development on this other than the sentencing is that radio statement that jerry sandusky gave, you remember that and i'm sure you've been running it this morning while i've been in court. the judge spoke about that, and it was interesting to hear what he said because before he issued his sentence he said i listened not only to the impact letters, read those, but i listened to that radio interview and you remember at one point during that statement that jerry sandusky gave, he talked about what basically amounts to a conspiracy, that he felt as though he was a victim of the

courts and victims who had come up and made up these stories, things like that, and the judge referred to that, and he was very clear. he said, quote, all the conspiracy theories he says that what flows from underneath that is not only the undeniable he said, but the unbelievable. so this is one of the things that the judge said just before he sentenced jerry sandusky. >> so paul callan, you were right. the judge did take that statement, those audio recordings, into account, and he did not look upon them favorably. >> no, he didn't. it backfired on sandusky, as i thought it would. he's obviously -- i got a feeling probably his lawyers told him not to do it either. you know, the lawyers are going to get slammed for going along with this, but who knows what happens behind closed doors. sandusky might have insisted on leaking this to the college radio station and the lawyers probably said it's your life. if that's what you want to do, do it. >> jason, carol, paul, thank you so much. we're going to take a quick break and we'll be back with

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moments ago the judge sentenced jerry sandusky to not less than 30 years in prison and not more than 60. the judge said he did not sentence him to hundreds of years behind bars because that just wouldn't seem right. jerry sandusky is around 68 years old. he will likely die in prison. these are pictures of jerry sandusky leaving the courtroom, getting into that place car, he'll be taken to the local jail where he's been being held and later transferred to a federal facility. much more on this story in the hours to come on cnn. let's talk about politics now, shall we? let's talk about the polls. but is it even worth talking about the polls? so you have heard all about the latest pew poll and it has a huge post debate bump for romney. there are two different polls new this morning that show

romney is actually losing momentum. so what's the obama campaign going to do about it? unleash big bird. >> bernie madoff, ken lay, criminals, gluttons of greed and the evil genius who towered over them, one man has the guts to speak his name. >> big bird. big bird, big bird. >> it's me, big bird. >> big, yellow, a menace to our economy. mitt romney knows it's not wall streth you have to worry about, it's sesame street. >> i'm going to stop this subsidy top bs. >> mitt romney, taking on our enemies no matter where they nest. >> there you have it. so let's talk about everything. jason johnson is a political science professor at hiram college in ohio. john avlon is an independent and cnn contributor and he does many, many more things, too. welcome to you both. >> good morning. >> okay. >> good to see you, carol. >> so president obama is arming himself with big bird and

actually nickelodeon, too, because apparently mitt romney refused to answer a question from the kids on nickelodeon's kids pick the president, and mr. obama did answer questions, and that started a war of words. obama's deputy national press secretary saying, quote, it's no surprise mr. romney chose to play hooky. kids demand details, end quote. jason, isn't this just silly? >> you know, it isn't silly when you're mitt romney because you need to make sure that after you get this post debate boost, that you work it as good as you can, and the idea of him looking cold again, the idea of him looking distant again and not connecting to people is not good. going after big bird, going after elmo and ignoring a bunch of kids is not the way to continue on the crest of your bump. it's not good for mitt romney. >> but, john, we saw mitt romneyed a an elementary school, he's shaking hands and he's telling touching stories on the campaign trail about this 14-year-old for whom he gave the

eulogy. >> yeah, but continue that momentum. this is an unforced error. if nickelodeon has a series and asks you to talk to american school kids, you can't say i don't have time for them and still be on a charm offensive. he's a fantastic father by all accounts. you always make time for america's school kids. if you don't, it's going to reflect badly on you. >> really? come on. really? >> yeah. >> i'm telling you. >> some people might say, my god, why take time out to answer a bunch of kid's questions. >> but the kids matter. >> and their parents vote. >> okay. you guys know more about politics than i do. it's okay. let's talk about the polls. there's being a war waged over the polls on twitter. it goes something like this, my poll is better than your poll, na-na-na-na. when taken all together, do national polls really matter, jason? >> they do matter, and they matter even when the republicans were becoming sort of poll truthers just like they were job truthers last week.

look, the thing is this. barack obama was never going to win by eight points. i always thought the original pew poll was too positive. but mitt romney has done better after the debate and that has now receded a bit. when we look at florida, when we look at ohio, when we look at virginia, if any of his success from last week's debate trickles into the states, this could be a whole new race. so far we haven't seen that. >> john, wouldn't you venture to guess that the closer we get to election time, the national polls, i'm not talking about the swing state polls, the national polls will show a race that's neck and neck? >> sure. absolutely. and, remember, election day is today in many states. there's early voting. this year is different. the only poll that counts isn't just election day, it's what people do before. jason is right to the extent that national polls are a broad barometer. what matters are the swing states. if you want to know what's going on, pay attention to them. i love the way the professional partisans on both sides whenever

they see a poll they don't like, they immediately start, you know, calling foul and going to the sample size. they're trying to spin their way out of what the polls are showing, and nobody thinks that president obama had a good debate last week. it's not a surprise that mitt romney is going to be making ground, pretty serious ground, in the past week. >> but there's still two more presidential polls to go. that's why i'm saying why even look at the polls right now, jason? >> well, because it matters. the horse race coverage matters for partisans, right? because the democrats always like to be chicken little and say, oh, my god, the sky is falling, obama got hammered in the debate and the republicans like to overestimate how friendly and nice people think mitt romney is. it matters to the people who are the partisans. it also matters for raising money. mitt romney raised a lot of money after the debate because he finally demonstrated that, hey, maybe this is a real race. the polls do matter internally in the campaigns. >> so i have learned from this conversation that big bird could be the decider. john -- >> don't dis big bird.

that's one of the big takeaways. >> i understand. jason, john, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> a reminder, vice president joe biden and congressman paul ryan preparing to debate each other this thursday night. cnn's live coverage begins at 7:00 p.m. eastern. or your atten. so we invented a warning you can feel. introducing the all-new cadillac xts. available with a patented safety alert seat. when there's danger you might not see, you're warned by a pulse in the seat. it's technology you won't find in a mercedes e-class. the all-new cadillac xts has arrived, and it's bringing the future forward. i"i'm not in favor of a a$5 trillion tax cut. that's not my plan." mitchell: "the nonpartisan tax policy center concluded that mitt romney's tax plan would cost $4.8 trillion over 10 years." vo: why won't romney level with us about his tax plan, which gives the wealthy huge new tax breaks?

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remember, open enrollment ends friday, december 7th. we can help. call unitedhealthcare to learn about medicare plans that may be right for you. call now. this is cnn breaking news. >> jerry sandusky, the former assistant coach at penn state, has now been sentenced to no less than 30 years, no more than 60 years in prison which likely means he will remain in prison for the rest of his life since he's around 68 years old. here he is being led from the courthouse just about 15, 20 minutes ago. hearing really didn't last long, maybe an hour and ten minutes at the most. jerry sandusky put into that police car, taken back to jail, and then at some point he will be transferred to federal prison. moments ago his attorney, joe

amendola spoke. let's listen. >> here is the issue, folks. we're going to challenge the fact that we needed more time to prepare adequately jerry's defense. here is the fundamental issue. under our constitution, both federally and in the commonwealth of pennsylvania, we have specific clauses that talk about due process. the sixth amendment of the u.s. constitution which applies to pennsylvania and the other 49 states, through the 14th amendment and through article i section 9 of our state constitution, the law says each and every one of us as citizens, and even noncitizens for that matter, are entitled to due process of law. now, due process of law is more than just showing up at court. having an attorney who can ask good questions and having your day in court and the court that decides or a jury decides your guilt and innocence. it also includes the concept of being able to properly and adequately prepare your defense before you show up in court.

>> so we've heard this before. in fact, we heard it in the audio tape recordings that jerry sandusky made while in jail and released to a campus radio station. our legal analyst paul callan is here to parse this out. does joe amendola have a good case? >> it's actually a very unusual claim. in most states and the u.s. constitution guarantees you to a right to a speedy trial, not a slow trial. amendola makes -- i think he makes an argument that certainly the court will look at. in a very complex case, you certainly have to give the defense time to prepare. now, his strongest argument is that the second indictment in this case was handed down in december of 2011. they were picking a jury by june, and there was a lot that had gone on in terms of motions in front of the court and trying to interview witnesses, and they were constantly telling the judge, we're not ready, we're not ready.

but the case went to trial, and it did go very, very quickly. usually a case like this, you wouldn't expect to see it tried for over a year because of its complexity. so he will get an audience before the court. i really doubt that it will be reversed though on that basis. >> all right. thank you, paul. before we button up this segment, i want to read a statement from penn state's president. he said the following, let's see, our thoughts today, he says, as they have been for the last year go out to the victims of jerry sandusky's abuse. while today's sentence cannot erase what has happened, hopefully it will provide comfort to those affected by these horrible events and help them continue down the road to recovery. that statement by the penn state president, rodney ericsson. we're going to take a quick break. we'll be back with much more.

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bumps and bruises seem element inevitable when it comes to kids so being prepared is key. dr. travis stork host of "the doctors" has some medical must-haves for the home. >> as an er doctor i'm acutely aware of how easy it is to injury ourselves, how easy it is for our kids to injury themselves. i recommend some of the premade first aid kits. american red cross has a bunch of kits available. that's what i have. if you're going to piecemeal it together, make sure you have a good set of bandages, compression wraps, ice wraps, scissors, and make sure you also have things like antihistamines, pain relievers, and if your child suffers from severe allergies, an epipen can be truly life saving because i have seen anaphylactic reactions in

kids and the only thing that can in many cases save them is an epipen. our talk back question this morning, do you believe in life after death and why? your responses next. some aerosols may just mix with them. can febreze really remove them? we asked real people what they thought. take a deep breath for me. describe the smell. it's very pleasant. fresh. some kind of flower maybe? remove the blindfold... awww, oh yuck! i didn't smell any of that! febreze air effects doesn't mix, it actually removes odors. [ laughs ] wow, that's incredible. just another way febreze helps you breathe happy.

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talk back question today, do you believe in life after death and why? great, great responses today. thank you. this from nancy, yes, i believe in life after death. this world is only a place of testing and preparation. from rob, i do not believe in life after death. when you die, that's it, it's all over. you only have one shot at this life, so make the best of it. and from mark, sometimes we think so much about what happens when our life is over, it gets in the way of the life we're living. thank you so much for responding to that question today. i appreciate it. facebook.com/carolcnn if you'd like to continue the conversation. an update on our skydiver, felix baumgartner. you know he wants to jump from the edge of space.